Planter.



J. A. GUTZEIT.

PLAN'IBR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 18. 1913.

Patented May 12, 1914.

JAJZz/ZZe/Z Inventor Attorneys JOSEPH A. G'UTZEIT, OF SAN ANTONIO,TEXAS.

PLANTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed November 18, 1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. GUTZEIT, a citizen of the United States,residing at San Antonio, in the county of Bexar and State of Texas, haveinvented a new and useful Planter, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to attachments for planters and more particularlyto means for use in connection with ordinary cotton planters whereby anydesired number of seeds may be collected and then dropped in hills, sothat the sprouts from the seeds will more readily break through a hardcrust than where the seeds are planted thinly in continuous rows, thelatter method of planting requiring special means for loosening thecrust so that sprouting will not be retarded.

Another object is to provide an attachment of this character which canbe applied readily to an ordinary form of planter and which is to beused in connection with the usual seed dropping mechanism.

With the foregoing and other objects in View which will appear as thedescription proceeds, the invention resides in the combination andarrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterdescribed and claimed, it being understood that changes in the preciseembodiment of the invention herein disclosed, can be made within thescope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawings the preferred form of the invention hasbeen shown.

In said drawings :Figure 1 is a rear elevation of a portion of a planterand showing the present improvements combined therewith. Fig. 2 is asection on line A-B Fig. 1, parts of the gear being broken away. Fig. 8is a section on line CD Fig. 2. Fig. 1- is a plan view of the actuatinglever. Fl 5 is a side elevation of the lever, the joint between the twomembers thereof being shown broken, by dotted lines.

Referring to the figures by characters of reference 1 designates theseed box of a planter, the same being provided with a dropping plate inthe form of a gear 2 which receives motion, as ordinarily, through aPatented May 12, 191.4. Serial No. 801,677.

gear 3 from the rotating axle 1 of the planter. The seed box is providedwith the usual outlet sprout 5 from which depends a flexible tube 6.

The parts herein described do not constitute any part of the presentinvention, specifically, but can already be found on some types ofplanters.

The attachment constituting the present invention includes a yoke-likeframe 7, the terminals of which are adapted to be secured to the mainframe 8 of the planter, this yoke or frame 7 being supported under therear portion of the seed box 1. A boot 9 is bolted or otherwise securedto the frame 7, this boot being preferably rectangular in crosssectional contour. The tube 6 discharges into the upper end of the bootwhile the lower end of the boot is supported close to the ground.Mounted for oscillation in the boot is a segmental rotary valve 10formed with a egmental recess 11. A guide plate 12 is mounted in theboot so as to overhang approximately one half of the valve, this plateserving to directseeds into the segmental recess 11 when the valve is inits normal position, as shown in Fig. 3. Valve 10 has a stem 13 whichextends beyond one wall of the boot and secured to this stem is an arm14:.

Pivotally mounted upon one side of the frame 7 and preferably back ofthe gear 3 is a lever 15 one arm of which has binding screws 16connected thereto while the other end is beveled, as shown at 17. Astrip 18 is secured to one ide of the beveled arm of the lever, thisstrip having a recessed end 19 designed to fit against the boss 20formed on the lever and which is designed to receive the pivot bolt 20'.A strip 21 is pivotally connected to strip 18 and has a beveled end 22adapted to bear against the beveled end 17 when strip 21 is in alincmentwith the lever 15. An extension strip 22 is engaged by the bindingscrews 16, this extension strip being formed with a slot 23 throughwhich the screws extend. By shifting the strip 22 longitudinally thelever can be elongated or shortened as desired.

Arm 141 is connected by a suitable ball and socket joint 24:, to aconnecting rod 25 and this rod is, in turn, connected by a suitable balland socket joint to the strip 21. The rod 25 can be adjusted to two ormore positions upon the strip 21, as will be apparent by referring toFig. l. In this figure the sockets in the strips 21 have been indicatedat 26 and a ball nut 27 has been shown in engagement with the offset endof the rod 25. Obviously, by removing the ball 27 the same can be placedinto any of the sockets and then secured to the rod 25.

A coiled spring 28 is secured at one end to the arm i l and at its otherend to strip 21, there being a series of openings 29 in the arm 14:, anyone of which is adapted to receive the end of the spring, while anotherseries of openings 30 is formed in the strip 21, any one of these lastnamed openings being adapted to receive the other end of the spring. Theextension'strip 22 on the lever 15 projects into the path of a series oftap pets 31 extending from the gear 3. These tappets can be placed atany desired distances apart and any preferred number of them can beused.

hen the attachment is in position the spring 28 pulls on arm 14 so asthus to hold the valve in the position shown in Fig. 3 and the arm 1 1pressed against a buffer 32 of rubber or other suitable materialextending from the frame 7. The spring and the rod 25 also cotiperate tohold the lever 15 extended horizontally with the extension strip 22projecting into the path of the tappets 31. As the machine movesforward, gear 3 will rotate the dropping plate or gear 2 so that seedswill be dropped intermittently into spout 5 and thence into the boot 9where they will become deposited in the recess 11. After a predeterminednumber of seeds have thus been dropped into the boot 9, one of thetappets 31 will come against the extension 22 of lever 15 and push itupwardly. Thus the strip 21 will be caused to push clownwardly throughrod 25 against arm 14: to cause said arm to swing downwardly away frombuffer 32. Consequently valve 10 will be actuated and the seeds whichmay have been deposited in the recess 11 will then be discharged intothe lower portion of the boot 9 and, consequently, into the furrowprovided for them. As soon as the tappet pin 31 has passed the strip 22,the spring 28 will return the lever 15 and the arm 14: and valve 10 totheir initial positions whereupon the operation will be repeated asbefore. Should the machine be moved backwardly, one of the tappets 31,upon moving against the strip 22 will press said strip downwardly but,as the outer end of the strip 21 is held by the rod 25, it will be seenthat the joint between the strip 21 and lever 15 will be broken, theparts assuming the relative positions indicated by dotted lines in Fig.5. 1

Consequently the tappets will be free to pass the lever 15 withoutoperating the mechanism or causing injury to any of the parts thereof. 7

While an oscillatory valve has been described and shown, it is to beunderstood that any other form of valve desired may be used where it ispossible to actuate it by means of the mechanism herein described.

What is claimed is 1. An attachment for planters including a boot, meansfor supporting the same in position to receive seeds from the droppingmechanism of the planter, a segmental valve mounted for oscillationWithin the boot, a spring controlled arm connected to the valve forholding the valve normally closed, a buffer for limiting the movement ofthe valve to closed position, said bufier cotiperating with the arm, alever, a connection between the lever and arm, means operated by theseed dropping mechanism for intermittently actuating the lever tooscillate the valve, the spring controlled arm of the lever constitutingmeans for supporting the lever normally in the path of said actuatingmeans.

2. An attachment for planters including a boot, means for supporting thesame in position to receive seeds from the dropping mechanism of theplanter, a segmental valve mounted for oscillation within the boot, a

spring controlled arm connected to the valve for holding the valvenormally closed, .a

buffer for limiting the movement of the valve to closed position, saidbufi'er'coiipcrating with the arm, a lever, a connection between thelever and arm, means operated by the seed dropping mechanism forintermittently actuating the leverto oscillate the valve, the springcontrolled arm of the lever constituting means for supporting the levernormally in the path of said actuating means, said lever including anextensible pivoted strip projecting beyond one end of the lever and intothe path of the actuating means, said strip being adapted to yield underthe action of the actuating mechanism when the movement of saidmechanism is reversed.

3. The combination with a planter including a revoluble axle, a gearrevoluble with the axle, a seed plate actuated by the gear, and anoutlet spout, of a boot for receiving seeds from the spout, a valvemounted for oscillation in the boot, an arm movable with the valve, aspring for holding the arm and valve normally in predeterminedpositions, a lever, a connection betweenthe lever and arm, the springand arm operating to hold the connection and lever normally inpredetermined positions, and an actuating device extending from the gearon the shaft and movable against one end of the lever to escillate thelever and open the valve, said lemy own, I have hereto afiixed mysignature ver lncludlng an extenslble end portlon for 111 thepresence oftwo \vltnesses.

en agement b said means on the ear, the w V, r \r' r safil lever bei gmade up of pivotfilly con- JOSIA II (IUIALH' 5 nected portions adapted.to fold When the ro- Witnesses:

tation of the actuating gear is reversed. E. A. WEST,

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as OHAs. X. GUTZEI'I.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

